Scam warning

The Member's account which was being used to run these 2 further listings through has now been closed! - Keep eyes open for any further accounts which may become compromised - Cheers.

Respect to Callum for taking one for the team, please keep us updated. Meanwhile, if anyone wants a 

Nord Stage 3 HP76 76-key Stage & Case & Sustain Pedal it's been available since 7 a.m this morning ;)

Anyone needs a Pioneer XDJ-XZ Gold? I am pretty sure scammer would use ANZ-WISE account, WISE is safer, but maybe they are dumb. What worries me is that they have a seeming unending list of compromised accounts. This is at least fourth in the last 24 hours that I have detected, and I only look in pianos. Apparently photo gear is another area where it's rampant. It's TM that should be filing police reports, not Callum(thank you, sire;))

Ah, that was fast, disabled already, active for 3 hours only. Let's wait till TM is out for lunch and something else gets listed during that time.

How come I can still buy those two listings, but when I click on the member, it shows as disabled?

Well, as a proof that it's the same person-they have blacklisted me already, so I can't "buy", but strange that listings from disabled accounts still show. He also paid extras to have it visible, so at least TM will get something for it. When they disable accounts, do they refund genuine sellers any money that they might have had on the account at all?

Both listings just been withdrawn(long after the listing acc was disabled). TM worked overtime, let's wait till lunch time to see new activity. Yesterday they listed twice during the day, after other acc were disabled. Scammers must just go through the list of hacked accounts, the hacking is automated, but TM is still in the stone age whacking the mole and relying on Community watch.

Just a quick update. Nothing too exciting happening. They have sent me a second bank account, so that's a good sign. It possibly means BNZ have locked down the first one they gave me. Second account also BNZ, but a different branch in Auckland. I duly sent that one through to the bank as well. Getting bank accounts flagged is a great result. It's relatively difficult to open a bank account in NZ.

I'm currently arguing with them as to why I can't collect the item, when I live in the same town. So far he's keeping relatively calm. I might start sending upside emails soon and say they look normal for me. Must be something they are doing. That's always a good one to rile 'em up. Another favourite is say I have made a bank transfer and send them a "screenshot" that is actually 10gb of white noise garbage for them to download.

uoos slᴉɐɯǝ uʍop ǝpᴉsdn ƃuᴉpuǝs ʇɹɐʇs ʇɥƃᴉɯ I

Have received the urgent warning email from Trade Me Trust & Safety not to complete the trade this morning at 9:01am. So yes someone in the office was onto it pretty quick after their cornflakes this morning.

Wonder whether Callum might share whether he heard back from the police. The scammer stopped for now and I think it's only because of what you did.

I'm still playing with him. I reported both bank accounts he provided and I guess they have now been flagged or frozen, as he is urging me not to use them. He is now trying to get me to pay via paypal. So at the least that's a couple of bank accounts out of action. From the times I get the emails, and the language it's possible this is being orchestrated from overseas. The bank accounts could have been local mules.

Thank you for sharing, Callum. This means that  even when the accounts are flagged, the individuals aren't taken in for questioning, even if they are just mules. I wonder what notifying PayPal would achieve... I only monitor digital pianos listings, because I am looking for one, but god only knows what is happening in other categories...

Does anyone need a Nord Stage 4 Piano? Looks like they are back online or could be another person. 4 listings, no pickup, high end items.

It's a shame that buyers names are not shown on closed listings anymore so we can warn them, unless it was Callum that did it again maybe.

I clicked on each one of those who asked questions-none had any listings to reach out to them. I sent the message to someone who could be the likely buyer, with the warning. It will soon be 24 hr since the listings went live. Around $200 success fee for the seller-they must have some money on the account...

New development-shipping of the keyboard would be from Australia, according to Q&A. Gotta love the stories that they are spinning-it takes creativity, not just hacking ability. One listing is allowing pickups somehow.

All gone now.

Conclusion-no dedicated hack team in TM still, even after the past 8 listings within 24 hours spree just a couple of week ago. Listings were live for nearly 24 hours and one was purchased. I am just documenting the issue here. I got scammed a year ago through the same scheme(it was only a $280 auction though, they have increased the stakes now)

Kia ora TM user, the team here get eyes over everything that comes through Community Watch, so anything you are reporting there they will see. As long as the listings are still live they can take action. If there are listings you've seen that are still live or as you've said were for a while, send those through on live chat so the team can have a look. Thanks for being vigilant!

Thank you Michelle, then I hope that you will see this message:

Automate the screening of the listings to flag suspicious ones(for example, Yamaha/Nord/Roland/Korg/Kawai in musical instruments, which are over $1000, doesn't have PICKUP ONLY and doesn't have Ping) to be one step ahead of scammers. Repeat with other categories popular with scammers.

None of us here are paid to do this for you. For the company, which made nearly $90m last year, this is not good enough.

Forgot to add to the filter-to flag any accounts that's been inactive for 6 months or more which suddenly list expensive items.

I know you are not going to do any of this, but in this thread-it will stay on record. Asked you about this many times for a year now.

Kia ora TM user, thanks, this is very constructive feedback. I've passed it on to the team. We genuinely appreciate you reporting these listings. I know there are a few of you who make considerable effort reporting listings to help us keep the site safe, so thank you. 🙂

This is great to hear Michelle. The first step would be to post an article on your scam page about genuine accounts being hacked and expensive items listed, with a checklist for buyers:

1) Does the BN price seems too good?

2) Did the trader have recent trades?

3) Are pickups offered?

4) Do identical photos come up in google search?

Unlike setting up the filters/screening listing, posting an article like this wouldn't cost you anything and can be done immediately.

Thank you, also a great suggestion. I thought we had this covered in the blog, but it's not there, so I've passed this on too. 

Literally the same scammer that Callum "bought" from, about3 weeks ago now, just listed TWO Nords, from TWO different accounts. I guess TM will get this message on Monday and will "pass it on"

The seller didn't even bother using different photos, same photos for two different listings, one in New Plymouth, one in Auckland.

Purchased the Auckland one. For my growing collection of keyboards that I never seem to get ;)

Congratulations, Callum, you were ahead of TM, again. They should give you a discount for being a repeated customer;)

BTW, another one was "purchased" by scammer himself for some reason. He now has an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 24GB GDDR6X which is also obviously fraudulent. Twice now, I see that TM disables sellers, but leaves the listings live, like in this case.

Looks like another one has listed the same MSI GeForce RTX 4090 SUPRIM X 24GB GDDR6X card and a Fujifilm X100VI Silver - Battery, Charger to go with it. Easy to spot, especially the shipping options, photos etc. I've CWd, emailed TM and mentioned the shipping option to them, which hopefully they can add to their flag it list.

Wow. I've hit a raw nerve. This morning they've purchased 30 or so items from me (so far) using 3 more different compromised accounts. Just to immediately leave me negative feedback. I guess it's one way to get them to burn through a bunch of the accounts they have taken over   :) Trust and Safety are going to have a busy day.